Microsoft: Xbox One is a "first-class experience"

The Xbox One will be a "first-class experience," Microsoft CFO Amy Hood said last night during a conference call discussing the company's latest earnings report for the quarter ended September 30.

Speaking about Microsoft's Xbox plans for this holiday, Hood said Microsoft has a "good breadth" of offerings, ranging from the value-focused Xbox 360 to the new Xbox One.

"We are excited that we'll have a great value offer at holiday with Xbox 360. And we'll also have a great choice with our innovative Xbox One platform to really give us a good breadth rolling into holiday of selections across price points," Hood said.

"We did, with Xbox One, make a decision to really enable a first-class experience out of the box. There's Kinect, there's a headset, and there's the console. And depending on where you are around the globe, there may be a game included as part of bundles for geographic interest," she added.

Hood also spoke more broadly about Microsoft's ambitions for the Xbox One, stating that launch on November 22 is only the beginning of the value proposition for the console.

"I'm excited about the increased opportunity that Xbox One allows us to attach more and different services beyond what we've historically thought of as simply a gaming platform," Hood said.

Microsoft is touting the Xbox One as an all-in-one entertainment device, capable of playing the latest games, but also supporting live TV, recorded content, and original programming. The monetary impact for these new, non-gaming applications won't be realized right away, Hood suggested.

"And when I think about the opportunity going forward, it is important in Q2 to realize that will impact our growth margin in the short-term," she said. "But winning the platform at holiday and our positioning to do that allows us to grow profitability in a far different way over the lifecycle."

Also during the call, Hood said Microsoft expects the Xbox One launch next month to be the "biggest in Xbox history," though no specific unit sales projections were given.